Toolbox (Visual Studio SDK)

The Visual Studio 2008 Toolbox provides a collection of .NET Framework objects, derived from Component, or ActiveX controls, derived from IDataObject, providing functionality to editors and designers through the IDE's drag-and-drop mechanism.

There are two basic ways in which a VSPackage works with the Visual Studio 2008 Toolbox:

• A VSPackage can add new data items and ActiveX controls to the Toolbox.

• A VSPackage can be a target or consumer of existing Toolbox functionality, supporting the drag-and-drop operations and configuring the Toolbox's appearance.

By default, controls provided by a VSPackage must support one or more of the following Clipboard formats:

Clipboard format	Description
CF_Text	Specifies the standard American National Standards Institute (ANSI) text format.
CF_HTML	Specifies text that consists of HTML data.
CF_NDP_TYPENAME	Specifies .NET Framework-based controls. Under the Managed Package Framework, Toolbox controls provided as ToolboxItem automatically support this format.

For information about providing items to the Visual Studio Toolbox, including items of non-standard format, see How to: Provide Custom Toolbox Items By Using the Managed Package Framework and How to: Provide Custom Toolbox Items By Using Interop Assemblies.

In This Section

• Managing the Toolbox
  Describes how a VSPackage can manage the content and appearance of the Toolbox.

• How to: Support Toolbox Drag-and-Drop Functionality
  Describes how to implement drag-and-drop support on a document view.

• How to: Provide Custom Toolbox Items By Using the Managed Package Framework
  Describes adding .NET Framework controls, based on to the Visual Studio 2008 Toolbox. These new items can either have a standard Clipboard format or a custom format supported by the VSPackage.

• How to: Provide Custom Toolbox Items By Using Interop Assemblies
  Describes adding new ActiveX controls and new items to the Visual Studio 2008 Toolbox. These new items can either have a standard Clipboard format or a custom format supported by the VSPackage.

• Registering Toolbox Support Features
  Describes how to register a VSPackage as a toolbox provider. Also talks about supporting or using other toolbox features.

• Toolbox Walkthroughs
  Contains examples that illustrate basic methods for adding and configuring Toolbox items.

Related Sections

• How to: Manage the Toolbox Window
  Describes how to work with the Toolbox in the Visual Studio 2008 integrated development environment (IDE).

• How to: Control the Toolbox
  Describes how to manage the Toolbox using the automation programming model.

• User Interfaces
  Explains how to use Visual Studio 2008 services to create UI elements that match the rest of Visual Studio 2008.